Damn Asshole Neighbors

For the past several summers our backyard has been the victim of random watering. The culprit, our damn asshole neighbors. They find it necessary to leave the hose in their pool allowing it to overflow. Why does this bother me? Because our backyard is downhill from them. This means that our yard becomes a muddy mess! This morning they apparently took down one of their pools, letting it drain into our backyard. Nice huu? I thought so too. Especially since we found out by looking out and seeing two mud filled dogs. Damn asshole neighbors. Ohhh well, guess two baths this weekend won’t kill the dogs.

Lazy Sunday

After last term I realized that it would be wise of me to read my books before they are do. So with my upcoming class starting tomorrow I figured I should start my reading.

I have successfully fallen asleep twice this morning trying to get through this chapter. I may be in for a very long 8 weeks.

I Drove A Lot Today

Parker’s New (nameless) Friend

Yesterday we got Parker a new friend. He’s an American Bulldog and pretty much a big lover. The only problem, we don’t like his name. So I’m thinking Vinny.

Just Some Pictures

Thank You

Wow. What a great weekend!! Friday was Ben’s field trip, Saturday was my b-day and today is Mother’s Day. I spent each day with some of the greatest people ever. Thank you each and every single one of you!!

Already Done

After Ben and I got home on Wednesday night we did a few things around the house and then we decided to go for a walk. As we walked we talked about our day and I eased into the situation at after school care. I explained to him that I loved him very, very much and would never ever want anything bad to happen to him.

I asked him why he felt like he wanted to hurt himself. He told me that nobody liked him. I told him that plenty people liked him. I named off some of his friends and some family members when he interrupted me. He told me that Jenny didn’t like him. I smiled and explained to him that Jenny doesn’t like anyone right now. She’s almost 14 and thinks that everyone except her friends are so UNCOOL! I told him a story about when I was about his age and my oldest brother was about Jenny’s age. I told him that Uncle Brian always used to let me run around with him and ride 4 wheelers, go swimming with him and his friends and hang out and watch tv with me but then he turned 13 or 14 and didn’t want his little sister tagging along anymore. And I was very sad and confused about why he didn’t want to hang out with me anymore.

We talked about good things to do when we are sad or upset. I told him that I like to write when I am sad or upset and even happy. We talked about drawing pictures, making Lego or Play Dough figures and setting up a target shooting range in his room so he can use his Nerf guns to shoot them.

And of course, we talked about the crazy stuff that was around us like the yappy little dogs that we came across, how Buddy almost got lost in the weeds that were growing by where they are building the new houses, climbing the rocks in the back of the neighborhood, the people that we pretended were “following us” and what we were going to have for dinner.

Thursday I had lunch at school with Ben. One to have lunch with him and two to talk to the counselor about what had happened on Wednesday at after school care. She talked to me for about 30 minutes. She was so nice. She suggested that I call a counselor to see if they could see Ben because she wouldn’t be about to see him on a regular basis because school was going to be out soon. She recommended the counselor that went to which made me very happy. Mainly, because I had already called to get an appointment for him.

What Do You Do When Your Child Hurts?

About a week and a half ago my son’s dad told me that he and his wife were getting a divorce. (They had been together for about 7 years.) My concern, my son.

The first week after I had been told of the divorce was kind of chaotic. My ex would drop Ben off at my house in the morning so that I could take him to school. So Tuesday morning I asked Ben how everything was going and he told me fine. He told me that he and his dad were living with some people who had 3 dogs and he got to sleep on the couch. After hearing that I dropped Ben off at school and called his dad to find out where the fuck he was staying and who the fuck was there. He informed me that he had moved in with his girlfriend and that they had been seeing each other for about six months now. Tuesday was a whirlwind! It was horrible! My friends can attest to that. I was a mess. Wednesday morning Ben got dropped off again before and told me more details about where he was staying and that he had a bed set up and they had a good dinner. I dropped him off at school and called his dad with my concerns. You know, like one week you and your WIFE are living together then next week Ben is at my house and then the next week you are living with another girl and Ben is confused as hell as to what is going on. Wednesday night Ben got to spend the night with his dad’s parents (like he does every Wednesday when he is at his dad’s) and had a great time. Thursday after school I went to pick Ben up and his teacher stopped me in the hallway. She had told me about the bad week that Ben had. He had a bad day each day. It was heartbreaking to me. I explained to her the situation, not so that she could be any easier on Ben, but to help her understand where he is. I picked up Ben from school and he talked to me a little bit more about his dad getting a divorce. He was pretty upset. He asked if it would be okay for him to talk to the school counselor. I encouraged him to do that and asked if he would like for me to call his teacher to set something up. He was ecstatic that I would do that. Friday, Saturday and Sunday Ben spent at my parents’ house because Jerry and I had to work over the weekend out of town. He had a great time with grandma and grandpa O.

This week at school went great. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Ben’s teacher wrote positive little notes in his planner like “Great attitude. I can really tell he has been working hard today.” or “We had so much fun in reading and he’s doing awesome.” But when I picked him up from after school care Wednesday one of the teachers pulled me aside and told me that Ben had said some things that I needed to know about and that made her concerned. She asked me to sit down. She went on to tell me that Ben had asked her if he could hurt himself and then he later asked her if he could kill himself.

I know! I was in tears sitting at the cafeteria tables. I could not imagine that he would ever feel that way. I felt my heart torn out of my chest, wadded into a ball and kick across the room. I felt lifeless. I felt helpless. I felt alone. And then I thought how must he feel?

Ice Cream Social

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

A little over a year ago Jenny came home from school telling me about this “rabbit rabbit rabbit” thing that one of her teachers had told the class about. If you know (or have known) a 13 year old girl tell a story you will understand this completely. Jenny rambled on and on for about 30 minutes about this rabbit rabbit rabbit thing, and girls at school, school lunch, the bus ride home, her science project, her shampoo, etc.

If you don’t know a 13 year old girl a conversation might go something like this: (remember to read the words at 4 times the speed that you normally would.)

Jenny: So today in math class we were talking about Joey and the teacher overheard us and was all like ‘girls you should be paying attention not gossiping’ and we were all like laughing cause she had NO idea what we were talking about and like I have a project due in science tomorrow and I don’t really know what I am going to do I thought about like doing maybe a solar system but then like Sydney is doing a solar system and since Sydney and Hannah are partners and Hannah and Lauren are fighting and Lauren is my partner and she is dating Kyle who broke up with Hannah to go out with Cassie but she broke up with him to go out with Joe not Joey Joe and then Kyle asked out Lauren and of course Lauren said yes and then like our teacher told us that every morning of the 1st of the month she says ‘rabbit rabbit rabbit’ for some reason and then Tommy said his sister has a pet rabbit and it disappeared and that’s what we are having for lunch today and Reese said ‘that’s so sad’ and started to laughing really hard and she started snorting and then on the way home I had to sit next to Eric who talked to me the WHOLE way about how he wanted to ask out Lauren but Lauren was going out with Kyle and he and Kyle played soccer on the same team. Wait, what are we having for dinner?

And really all I got out of the conversation was that her teacher told the students that each morning of the 1st of the new month she would say “rabbit rabbit rabbit” for some reason or another.

Since then, each morning of the 1st of the new month I make it a point to say “rabbit rabbit rabbit” to Jenny. Well, to be honest, the first few months were hit and miss. Then, I realized that I had a calendar on my phone so I started setting an alarm to remind myself to say “rabbit rabbit rabbit” to Jenny.

And you would think that I’d be curious what all this three rabbit shit is about over the past year or so. Nope, not really enough to do anything about it. Sure, there have been several times when I’ve thought about looking it up to see what it’s all about, but I’ve forgotten to do that just as many times. I’ve just had a good time with Jenny every morning of the 1st of the month. Or that evening or the next day or whenever I remembered.

Today, curiosity struck. And I actually remembered to look it up. And according to Wikipedia:

“Rabbit rabbit rabbit” is one variant of a common British superstition which states that a person should say or repeat the word “rabbit” or “rabbits”, or say the phrase “white rabbits”, or some combination of these elements, out loud upon waking on the first day of the month, because doing so will ensure good luck for the duration of that month.

So apparently, I’ve been doing this “rabbit rabbit rabbit” thing right all along without even knowing what the hell I should even be doing.

Moral of the story? I’m awesome!